American Mafia: The Rise and Fall of Organized Crime in Las Vegas

I'm a huge true crime fan (which sounds morbid) but I'm fascinating by the criminal mind. This film does a great job of showing all the elements that come into play when it comes to the life of crime. Then add in the scene of Vegas and you have a fascinating mix. Job well done!

For what it covered it was interesting. It didn't cover organized crime in Las Vegas during prohibition. Totally skipped that for some reason. I also didn't like that they sometimes jumped around chronologically but failed to give a reference. It was only because I was already familiar with Vegas history that I knew when they were covering.

The second half seemed like they started running out of material to meet the total time for the show. They repeated things like explaining the Hole in the Wall Gang it seemed like many times.

They did cover some things more in depth which made most of this show interesting. Could have been better but worth a watch if really interested in Vegas history. There is also the Vegas history the local PBS station has been posting on YouTube that is excellent and covers some of the same.

I love Mafia anything. I am Sicilian so, it hits home! I thought this was really well done. Informative and had a point of view. I loved the original footage. There was WAY more than I thought there would be. The ones being interviewed were incredibly knowledgable and really sold the validity of the documentary. I thought the interview setups were also done well. One thing that can also be very troubling about documentaries are that they can sometimes have poor audio. While this one has a zoom caller (it looked like), the audio was still very well done in the interview sessions. If you love Vegas, History, Mafia or all of the above, I would highly recommend checking this one out!

This gem of a documentary looks into the genesis of Las Vegas from desert land to a place of glamour where celebrities rubbed shoulders with mobsters. It follows events in a chronological order highlighting the 2 masterminds behind Sin City. The interviews and cool footage work a chronic of times when men not corporations ran the world of high stake gambling. If you are a fan of Vegas and Gangster stories this documentary will not disappoint.

This documentary repeats itself so many times it's really laughable. How many people do we need to tell us how the "Hole in the wall" gang got its name? Well evidently it's three times by three different people back to back. This thing feels like it's on loop. If it has one good fact, it has every interviewee repeat it over and over again. It feels like when my high school teacher said I needed to write a 1500 word essay and I've only got 500 words of content. Also, for a documentary that beats a dead horse over and over again, we really don't need to hear the name of every single person's first and last name that committed every single crime and made every single purchase. I feel like the interviewees are just showing off the fact that they know all these name, even though that have absolutely no relevance to the main stories. The only more infuriating documentary that got me to write a review like this was "The Spirit of the Pony Express."

This documentary does not receive a passing grade from a high school film editor.